While the season-ending loss to Final Four participant Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament West Regional semifinals leaves a sour taste in Purdue's collective mouths, the Boilermakers are hungry for more basketball.

Ultimately, getting snubbed by the NCAA has worked out for the best for Penn State. Instead of the likelihood of getting eliminated during the first weekend, the young Nittany Lions have benefited from five extra games and earned their first national postseason title.

Northwestern finished in ninth place in the Big Ten. But with the possible exception of Michigan, which nearly reached the Sweet Sixteen in its first NCAA appearance since 1998, nobody in the league enjoyed a bigger, better rise than the Wildcats.

Shortly after Tom Crean was hired as Hoosiers head coach April 2, 2008, it became abundantly clear that success was going to have to be measured in a completely different way at IU than it had been in the previous four decades in Bloomington. Victories on the court weren't going to be nearly as important as building for the future.

When Michigan State coach Tom Izzo won his first national championship, he recalls that famed UCLA coach John Wooden told him "welcome to the fraternity of 40." "I didn't even know what the heck he meant," Izzo said. "He meant there were 40 guys that have won a national championship and I thank Bill Walton for deciphering what he said."

Drew Neitzel found his touch just in time for Michigan State. Held to two points in the first half and struggling through a shooting slump in the first four games of the Big Ten season, Neitzel made five 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes to lead No. 11 Michigan State to a 78-73 victory over Minnesota on Sunday.